Notes on souLC lUtsliman Crania and Bones. 



243 



head length is ISl'O? milHmetres, and the coefficient of variation 

 _ 5-6267 X 100 _ „^„ 

 181-07 ~ 

 The following- table indicates the coefficients in the groups 

 previously contrasted : — 



Groups of Male Skulls. 



From this it would appear that the Strandloopers are a less 

 variable group than the skulls collected under the general title of 

 Bushmen — a conclusion amply confirmed by inspection. The 

 Hottentots show a lesser range of variation in most dimensions 

 than do the Bushmen, though somewhat greater than either the 

 Strandloopers or the Kaffirs. 



This scarcely agrees with the idea that the Hottentots are a 

 recent racial admixture recruited irregularly from both Bushmen 

 and Kaffirs. It is doubtful whether this view has ever rested on a 

 firm historical basis. On the other hand, if an equal number of 

 Strandlooper and Kaffir skulls be taken and treated as a simple 

 group, the resulting average dimensions and coefficients of variation 

 agree closely with the numbers obtained from the Hottentots. Yet 

 in the case of such a mixture it is comparatively easy by the eye to 

 pick out the majority of the component skulls and place them under 

 their respective categories. While in dealing with the Hottentot 

 series, although many could be at once selected as indistinguishable 

 from Bushmen, fewer would be taken for Kaffirs. 



On the other hand, it is far less easy to separate the skulls of a 

 mixed group of Hottentots and natives of Nyasaland. The latter 

 are in many respects a more variable group, and, it may be, contain 



19 



